The database industry today is seeing rapidly increasing demand for database systems that are increasingly large in complexity and size, both in terms of the hardware and software components that make up the database systems, the data that populates the systems, and the queries that the systems are asked to execute. The industry is also seeing a desire from certain types of database users, such as large retailers and telecommunications companies, in keeping multiple copies of a single database system available for active use for the purpose of protecting against planned and unplanned outages, as well as allowing cross-system workload balancing. Unfortunately, the database systems available today were not designed with multiple-active use in mind and, as a rule, are ill-equipped to allow for use in a multiple-active environment.